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Monday: 11th December 2017

OPENING CALL: The Australian market looks to open higher with SPI Futures up 23 points.

The Australian share market looks set to open comfortably higher after Wall Street lifted on strong US jobs figures, Europe rose on a Brexit breakthrough and Asian indexes gained after economic news beat expectations.

In Europe, Britain and the European Union struck a divorce deal paving the way for talks on future trade ties, easing immediate pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit.

Overnight Summary

Each Market In Focus

The Australian share market looks set to open comfortably higher after Wall Street lifted on strong US jobs figures, Europe rose on a Brexit breakthrough and Asian indexes gained after economic news beat expectations.

At 0700 AEDT on Monday, the share price futures index was up 23 points, or 0.38 percent, at 6,024.

In economic news on Monday, the CoreLogic capital city house prices survey

for the December 10 is due out.

In equities news, Oroton is slated to have its first creditors meeting in Sydney, after the luxury handbag retailer went into voluntary administration on November 30.

The Australian market on Friday closed comfortably higher with an end-of-week rally across most sectors, led by a jump in energy stocks.

US stocks have advanced, buoyed by a solid payrolls report for November that locked in expectations for an interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve next week and raised optimism about economic prospects in 2018.

Technology stocks such as Microsoft, Apple and Oracle helped pace the advance, as they continued to rebound from a selloff in the sector earlier in the week.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs in November amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, Labor Department data showed, topping expectations calling for a rise by 200,000 jobs.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent in November after dipping 0.1 percent the prior month but fell shy of the estimated 0.3 percent rise.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.49 per cent, to 24,329.16.

The S&P 500 gained 0.55 per cent to 2,651.50.

The Nasdaq Composite added 0.4 percent to 6,840.08.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.4 percent, the S&P advanced 0.35 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.11 percent.

Gold prices inched lower after closing at their lowest level since July Thursday, with interest rates still in focus for many investors following the latest jobs report.

Gold for February delivery declined 0.4% to $1,248.40 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange to wrap up its worst week since May. Prices have fallen in six of the past eight sessions and have been weighed down recently by concerns about higher interest rates and a stronger dollar. They are roughly 7.5% off their year-to-date highs from early September.

Among base metals, copper for March delivery rose 0.5% to $2.9785 a pound. The industrial metal has fallen back below $3 following its worst day in almost three years earlier this week, with some investors worried that an economic slowdown in China will weigh on prices. China is the world’s largest base metals consumer and had outperformed expectations earlier in the year to push copper prices to a three-year high.

The U.S. dollar held steady Friday after the monthly jobs report suggested inflation remains muted amid strength in the labor market.

The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which measures the currency against a basket of 16 others, rose 0.1% at 87.29 to finish the week up 0.9%. The dollar pared early gains against the euro and the Japanese yen after the Labor Department data.

The U.S. economy produced 228,000 jobs in November, surpassing the 195,000 predicted by economists in a Wall Street Journal survey, while the unemployment rate held at 4.1% for a second consecutive month. Wages rose 0.2% for the month, and 2.5% from a year ago, which was less than the consensus forecast of 0.3% and 2.7%, respectively.

Investors are looking at the dollar “in relation to the wage figure,” said Erik Nelson, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo Securities. With several Federal Reserve officials have expressed uncertainty about why prices have failed to rise significantly amid a period of robust growth and low unemployment, “that’s really been the key narrative.”

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR:
The Australian dollar is a little lower against its US counterpart which has strengthened following strong US jobs data.
At 0635 AEDT on Monday, the Australian dollar was worth 75.11 US cents, down from 75.14 US cents on Friday.

A breakthrough in Brexit talks helped British shares surge ahead of European peers on Friday as sterling fell back, dented by investors banking their gains in the currency which has swung violently as negotiations unfolded.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up 1.0 percent, at 7,393.96, delivering its strongest week in two months, while eurozone stocks ended the day 0.7 percent higher with all sectors trading in positive territory.

Britain and the European Union struck a divorce deal paving the way for talks on future trade ties, easing immediate pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit.

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